Vegas To Reno 2012

Story by Richard Walker Photos by Mario Baldassarre

It all started with a phone call from my good friend Daryl Goldsby. You know, the kind of phone call that starts out as a random, “Hey, how’s it goin’?” Then out of the blue, Daryl says, “Hey, want to run Vegas To Reno with me and Hair-Do?” For clarification purposes, Hair-Do is Matt Nieman, the car owner - both Matt and Daryl work at Big Country Customs.

My natural response was, “Hell yeah!”

The following months were very involved as we slowly figured out all the logistics involved in making this race happen. I could go on and on about what needed to be done (finding the team, race prepping the car and chase truck, travel logistics, etc), but the fact of the matter is, it’s all quite boring. So let’s skip to the racing! When all was said and done, there would only be 5 of us on the team - Matt Nieman, Rocco Baldassarre, Daryl Goldsby, Mario Baldassarre and myself, Rich Walker.

You see, not only was the car to be prepped for Vegas To Reno, but Matt and I also made a trip down to San Bernardino, California for another Ultra4 race at the Glen Helen Raceway (an attempt to qualify for the King of the Hammers in February).

The next 3 weeks were a mad dash of long days and late nights to get the motor out, diagnosed, rebuilt and back in the car. Turns out we spun a bearing. We have to give a huge THANK YOU to the guys at Marlin Crawler for going the extra distance to get one of the vital parts we needed (and couldn’t find) up to the shop in record time. We really couldn’t have done it without them.

Fast forward to Vegas. The car is ready to race after a long, hot (53 degrees) day at tech and contingency. We did some last minute paperwork prep in the condo and tried to get a good nights’ sleep, as we had to be up and on the road by 6am.

Race day started off a little slow (for me anyway as I didn’t sleep much). We got the condo cleaned up (thanks to Rocco’s buddy for the hook up) and hit the road. The starting point for the race was actually over an hour away from where we were staying so we had to get a move on. Once there, we got the car unloaded and staged while Matt and Rocco suited up for their leg of the race. The plan was for Matt and Rocco to run the first 280 miles (to pit 8 or 9); then Daryl and I would take over for the last 254 miles.

Before we knew it, Matt and Rocco were off into the dust while the three of us started the chase. The way the race is set up is truly amazing. While the race car is off pounding the ruts and whoops, the chase team is able to follow the highway system staying ahead of the race car. This gives the chase team lots of time to get to the pits and get set up or stop for fuel, which we had to do more than a couple times.

Right from the start we had radio contact issues that would plague us for the entire race. The race car could sporadically get in touch with the chase truck, but the chase truck could not communicate with the race car. As chase pulled into pit one, we had heard something on the radio about a power issue. Soon enough they pulled into the pit and Daryl got to work with the laptop trying to diagnose the issue. He did what he could with the timing and we sent them back out.

At pit 2, we realized it was vapor lock that was causing issues with the car. It was 47 degrees and the car was trying to do 80 miles an hour through the desert. We tried to bleed the system and packed some ice on the intake. Off they went.

Between pit 2 and pit 3 things got interesting. We (chase) pulled into pit 3 and proceeded to wait. With no communication, there was nothing else we could do. It seems the ice didn’t last long and soon after pit 2 they were having fuel issues again. Matt and Rocco were stopped for over 3 hours trying to get the car running while we could do nothing but sit there. After almost 4 hours, Daryl, Mario and I had pretty much decided the race was over for us as the pit was closing in less than an hour. We started to pack up when we heard a faint voice on the radio. It was Rocco saying they were on the move again and about 30 miles out. They had less than an hour to travel 30 miles. Could they do it?

No word of a lie, with less than 10 minutes to go, we saw dust in the distance. That yellow light bar stuck out like a sore thumb and we knew it was them. They pulled onto the tarp and in less than 2 minutes we got them fueled, fed and back out there. Almost as efficient as NASCAR!

Lucky for us, the daytime temperature was dropping and the vapor locking issues would be a thing of the past for the remainder of the race. Between pit 3 and 4 the temperature dropped from almost 50 degrees to 18. The following few pits went just as planned. Day turned into night and we stayed ahead of them in the chase truck stopping at the pits to fuel them up and get back out there.

We had already been up for 18 hours when Matt and Rocco pulled into pit 8. Daryl and I suited up into all our safety gear and got belted in. Before long we were off into the night. It was a little odd for Daryl and I, as in the past I was usually the driver and he was the spotter. Plus, I had never used that model of GPS before. But it didn’t seem to matter; in less than a few miles we got into a groove that would take us the next 284 miles.  It was truly an incredible journey. Watching the sunrise while bombing through the desert at up to 100 kph is not something many people have experienced.

The rest of the race went smoothly. The only real issue we had was the front passenger upper link kept backing off and allowing the diff to shift enough that the bump stops weren’t hitting the pads. The pit crew always had a handle on it and got us fixed up every time we pulled in. Keep in mind the current pit crew were guys that just raced 250 miles and were on the race course for almost 12 hours.

We kept the pace up watching the RM’s (race miles) go down one at a time. Daryl and I pulled into the last pit, grabbed some fuel and some breakfast (it was 7:30 in the morning) and got back out there with the last leg being the only thing in our way from finishing the “longest race on US soil”. During the last 30 miles things got ‘interesting’. I’m not sure if it was delirium or pure exhaustion, but we started singing our brains out and quoting some classic movies. I can remember singing ‘You’re the Inspiration’ by Chicago and Daryl replying with ‘Dust in the Wind’ by Kansas.

After 21 hours and 45 minutes and almost being out of the race at pit 3, we crossed the finish line where everyone was waiting to congratulate us. It was a truly surreal feeling grasping what the 5 of us had just accomplished. I can’t give enough thanks to the entire team for letting me play a part in such an amazing adventure. Everyone dug deep into themselves to stay up for almost 48 hours, beating the odds and getting the job done.

I am happy to say that we achieved our number one goal. We qualified for The King of the Hammers in 2013.

Anyone want to spend a couple weeks in the desert in February?

For the full story and photos see Volume 14 Issue 5